not without my daughter (video)

[nikcola]

does anyone have this on video and is interested in selling it xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ebay

ebay 2

or here

oh gawd, thats sounds awful. will it make me cry?

i recently read a book called Without Mercy about a lady whose daughters were sold as yeman wives. she has been fighting for over 20years for her youngest daughter (now 38yrs old) to get back to the UK.

Thanks JanH. Just read it and it was really interesting.
Can't understand however why the dad didn't speak Turkish to the children before they came to live in Turkey. It would have saved so much grief and they are Turkish after all! My dd is booked to go into a Turkish medium school in the new year.
Also find it odd when she complains about the lack of things. I live in what by definition is the most remote corner of Turkey yet we can get anything we want! As for junk food-my God, Turkish food is absolutely wonderful!! Who would miss the crap back home?!

Bit nervous as I am throwing a party for 50 of my husband's work colleagues this Friday and deliberately trying to give them something different. Hope they like it!

No, I couldn't understand that either, moondog - when you have a bi-lingual family how silly not to use both languages!

Good luck with the party - what will you give them? (What does your husband do?)

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I'm doing Thai beef curry and rice,chicken goujons and home made mayonnaise,tabbouleh, tomato salad, chick pea, fetta and roasted pepper salad, spinach frittata,potato salad and courgettes,pan fried with chilli, cumin and lemon with lavash (pitta style bread) and yoghurt.

For pudding, cheesecake and crumble (very British!) and to drink, beer, wine and soft drinks as many of them don't drink.
Terrified that I will overdo it and make an arse of myself!!

Dh works on an EU project (Turkey wants to join) aimed at improving matters in the areas of agriculture, tourism, and business. He loves it!
I have been to some of the Kurdish villages he is focussing on by the border with Iran-wild desolate places where people have hard lives-no running water or proper sewage systems and an average of 10-15 kids a family. Gave one group of kids one of my dd's books (they had picked me a bunch of flowers) and they all actually tore a page out so as to share it!! Makes you think doesn't it, especially at this time of greed and consumption...

For 50 people?? Blimey! You hero! That all sounds great and I bet they will enjoy it. Will they all be men?

His job sounds very rewarding, how lovely to be able to make a real difference to people like that. And how sweet that the kids shared out the book that way!

No, not all men, plenty of women too, including his very clever assistant who is the Amnesty International rep for Turkey and about to go to a women's rights conference in New York.
Honestly, they are the most charming people in the world. I am really going to make a big effort as they have all been so kind to us!

Oh, Amnesty? Another rewarding job! I was going to ask if he worked for a charity but with you saying EU I was assuming he worked for them - I knew Turkey was hoping to be admitted. So does your DH speak Turkish? Or is all the business conducted in English? How are you getting along with your lessons? How old are your children, and are they picking up Turkish? How long will you be there?

When something like this comes up it always seems to lead to question after question, sorry!

Not at all! Nice that someone is interested!
Dh doesn't speak Turkish-he has interpreters with him at all times and everyone involved speaks English anyway.
He would like to, but working a 70 hour week and doing an MSC and being with the family leaves very little time. Turkish is pretty hard too-very complicated grammar.

I have a lesson every day-someone comes to the house (lovely student who invited me to her family for tea on Sunday. All her friends came and took off their headscarves, but as soon as I picked up my camera to take a picture they put them back on-in case a man saw the picture!
Actually as Turkey is a secular state, women aren't allowed to enter public buildings (eg universities, council offices) wearing a headscarf-very difficult for the women here in van to accept.)

Dd will go to school here eventually, but as I have been working until recently and dh has been away for so long, at present I think she is happiest at home with me. Also we go home very frequently and she is enrolled in our local school, so I don't want to make things too complicated.

We'll be here for at least the next three years (poss more) so have a vested interest in getting on with learning Turkish as quickly as possible (can't imagine living somewhere and not having a crack at the language.)
Anyway, it's fun!! Keeps my brain ticking over while immersed in 100% sah motherhood!

Hi again, moondog, sorry I missed your last 2 messages the other night! Hope your party went well on Friday and all your guests enjoyed the food.

I hope that if I were living somewhere for that length of time I would also try to learn the language, especially if most people there don't know English - even if you only learnt nouns and basic verbs you could communicate a bit (but I assume you are doing better than that!)

The headscarf business is interesting. It makes life complicated when a country is split between continents like that. Are all the people in Van Moslem? I've just been googling but can't find out much about it beyond pics of the lake, mountains and churches, and the fact that its cats have one green eye and one blue!

Just found \link{http://www.ezoptravel.com/ezopnew/turkey/easterna/van.htm\this page} which has more information and a few different pictures. It looks and sounds fascinating.

Just want to say that I have seen this film and found it very informative and moving. Yes, it will make you cry, and you will be full of admiration for the mother. It is based on a true story. I think her name was Betty Mahmoudy. That is the kind of impression the film makes on you as it was several years ago when I saw it but I still remember.

I haven't seen this fim but have heard bad reports of it, I'm afraid. I have no idea if they're justified or not, so don't jump on me, but, although the story is based on truth I have heard that its portrayal of what happened borders on the racist and is a bit ill-informed.

Thanks janh for the info! You are a mine of information!
Yes, Van is a great place, on the old Silk Route and also there were a lot of Armenians here until the beginning of this century, so there is a lot of Christian influence and architecture although there are very very few Christians here now (if any?)You drive along and suddenly come across a church!
It is nice to be somewhere where there are so few foreigners and tourists-feel you have it all to yourself somehow!People have been scared away by the troubles of the last few years but things seem calmer now and they should start coming back 9one of the things my dh's project is concerned with).
The weirdest thing is this huge huge lake with nothing going on on it (apart from the ferry which brings the train-the terrain is too prone to earthquakes to build a railroad apparently)
Anywhere else there would be condos, jetskiis, water skiing, boats and so on, but here it is so quiet... Eeery!!(Region as a whole too poor of course to develop it)
The party went great thanks! Everyone so charming and appreciative and great fun. I love them all!! (Mind you, had so much cooking to do that I had to cancel my daily Turkish lesson two days on the trot-feel like a real skiver now!)